Always
by II PermaFrost II
Summary: "Do you remember the day we met?" "Do you remember our first kiss?" "You looked so scared..." Human!AU After something terrible happens, Bubba Gumball reminisces while waiting for his boyfriend to wake up. GumLee
1. Chapter 1

Always

Chapter 1

The room was mostly quiet, only the steady beep of a machine and pattering of rain on the window served as a constant noise. Occasionally the low rumble of heavy cartwheels on a tile floor would sound on the other side of the door and then retreat into the distance.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Such simple sounds, those beeps were. Simple and often times irritating. Like the beep of machines at the grocery store, ringing through peoples items. Or the telltale beep of a computer refusing to do what you want it to. Beeps were such a machine sound, such an alien, inhuman noise.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

But sometimes, beeps weren't annoying. Sometimes the beeps meant something more than just a machine saying yes or no. Sometimes the beeps sounded like the beating of a heart, telling you that that someone was alive.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Bubba prayed the beeps wouldn't stop.

Gently stroking the back of a bandaged hand, being mindful of the IV there, he lifted it to his lips and kissed the bruised fingers.

Drawing a slow breath, he set the hand back down on the soft linen of the hospital sheets and keeping his fingers curled around it, he reached up with his other hand and carefully smoothed out the folds that might've been uncomfortable in the hospital gown collar.

Thunder grumbled outside, but for once the sound didn't make him jump, there was only one thing he could hear in that small room.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

The little beeps telling him that Marshall Lee was still alive.

The room gradually grew darker as the day outside came to a close and still, Bubba sat there in the uncomfortable hospital chair, holding the pale, bruised hand that could be so strong; that could build things like a deck, a table, matching chairs, and a bookshelf. He held onto the hand that had both struck and defended him. He kissed and caressed the hand that had only a few days ago kissed and caressed him.

Sucking in a sharp breath in the dark near silence of the room, Bubba blinked rapidly, lifting the hand again and pressing his forehead against it. Shoulders trembling, Bubba squeezed his eyes shut and bit at his lip. He drew shaky breaths, struggling to reign himself in for a few minutes until, swallowing thickly, he leaned back and once again lowered the hand, holding onto it with both of his own this time.

Behind him, a door clicked open and the pink haired man glanced over his shoulder.

"Mr. Gumball" The nurse smiled and gave him a little nod. "Just need to check on Marshall."

"Mm..." He kissed the hand again, set it down and taking a breath, he let it go and stood, moving out of the nurses way.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

"Bubba you... You look terrible."

Feeling the touch on his back, Bubba's eyes fluttered open and groggily, he sat up, the top sheet on Marshall sticking to his cheek from drool.

"Ungh...?" He blinked and gradually the amused face of his friend, Fionna came into focus.

"Morning." She said quietly, giving a little laugh. "Come on sleepy, maybe you should go home and get some rest. I'll stay with him."

As if on some silent cue, both Bubba and Fionna turned their gazes to the comatose Marshall Lee, eyes lingering on different things. The bandage around his head, the scrape on his cheek, the little oxygen tubes in his nose.

"I..."

Fionna leaned down and kissed Bubba's forehead.

"Here are my house keys. My bed's super comfy. Go on. You won't be any good to him if you end up in the next room over."

Bubba knew she was right. He took a deep breath and tilted his neck to one side, then the other, working the kinks out of it. Kissing Marshall's hand once again, he whispered a promise to be back against the fingers and then laid it down, vacating his chair so that Fionna might occupy it in his place.

Bubba paused by the room door, looking back over his shoulder. He watched their friend take up the same position he'd had. Sitting in that uncomfortable chair, holding onto the bruised and scraped up hand and smoothing out the blankets around the unconscious man, adjusting things that he couldn't even feel, let alone complain about.

He listened.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

The door shut with a soft click and a fervent prayer to whomever was listening that the beeping never stopped.

The rain continued on, washing away the dirt and debris of day to day life. The water ran in little rivers alongside the sidewalks, carrying leaves, cigarette butts and bits of trash into drains.

It was always raining in movies whenever something sad happened, or whenever someone was having some sort of life changing moment.

Hands in his pockets, Bubba watched an old flyer for some supermarket drift past him on the little roadside river.  
>Marshall would always laugh and roll his eyes whenever it started raining in a movie. He'd usually predict precisely what was going to happen next while handing Bubba a tissue – he always cried at all the sad parts and the other man teased him endlessly about it.<p>

Reaching Fionna's apartment, he unlocked the door and quietly let himself in, hanging up his jacket and heading to the blonde girls room, hardly aware of what he was doing. Dropping onto the bed, he draped an arm over his eyes and took a deep breath, listening to the rain.

The silence unnerved him.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

When Bubba went back to the hospital, he opened the door to the little room just slightly, pausing a moment and listening for the hopeful little sound of the machine. When the beeps reached his ears, the man breathed a sigh of relief and swung open the door, stepping in.

Marshall wasn't alone when he walked into the room. Fionna swung her head around to look at him, still occupying his place in the uncomfortable chair. Sitting opposite her, on Marshall's other side, was Marceline.

The dark haired woman had her chin resting on the back of her hands, elbows propped on the edge of the bed, gazing at her brothers face. She hardly seemed to notice Bubba's entrance to the room.

"Hey." Fionna said quietly, giving him a little smile in greeting as he walked over. "You look less d... Awful."

Bubba patted her shoulder.

"Your bed is super comfy."

Outside, it had stopped raining, but the sky was still grey, the clouds heavy with water. It would rain again before the day was through. The distant rumble of cars on wet roads mingled with the steady beeps in the room for a moment, until Marceline suddenly leaned back in her chair with a breath.

She looked at Bubba and seemed about to say something, hesitated and then looked away.

"I'm uh... I'm gonna go get something to eat from the cafeteria." She said instead, standing and walking around the bed. She paused briefly by Bubba, her hand making an awkward movement before she shoved it into her jeans pocket and headed for the door. She opened it and stepped out, not looking back.

"I'll go with her." Fionna gently removed her hand from Marshall's and stood, stretching. "You know Marce-"

"I know, Fionna. I know."

And then Bubba was back in the uncomfortable chair, his jacket hanging on the back of it, his hand once more curled around Marshall Lee's.

Minutes ticked past, counted by the ever constant little beeps. Bubba smiled.

"Hey... Do you remember when we met?" He said suddenly, stroking Marshall's hand with his thumb. "You were such a creepy jerk." A little laugh bubbled through his lips.

AAA

The sky was a brilliant clear blue and though it was only about ten o'clock in the morning, the sun was bright and warm and drying the dew dampened grass.

Birds chirped and sang, butterflies danced with flowers and somewhere nearby a child squealed with laughter.

The beauty of the day however was lost on one boy.

Standing on the sidewalk in front of a house with a large "SOLD" sign shoved into the grass, was a young boy around five years old. He was slightly chubby, had violet eyes, light red hair and a very displeased look on his face. As though someone had just taken his favourite stuffed toy from him.

The truth of the matter wasn't that someone had taken his favourite toy, it was more like someone had taken favourite house.

He looked over, towards the driveway of the home and gave the pouty little sigh that children are known to do when things haven't gone their way and all the crying and screaming in the world didn't help. There was his mother a tall woman with her strawberry-blonde hair pulled into a loose bun, pulling a lawn chair out of the large moving truck parked in front the house. She was getting ready to park herself on the front lawn of their new house with her checklist and mark things off as they were pulled out of the truck.

Over by the family car was his father, a short man with dark blonde hair and a stern expression on his face. He was talking with the movers and gesturing with his arms – he was explaining exactly how things were going to go.

Lip jutting out in a perfect frowny pout, the boy crossed his arms and huffed. His mother, carrying the lawn chair looked up at him and smiled.

"Bubba! Come and sit with me?" She called and Bubba instead sat on the sidewalk and glared at her. He would not sit over there. He wouldn't sit with her until they took him back home. Until they all piled back into the car and took the forever long drive back home and away from here.

There was a giggle.

Bubba blinked and looked over the other way and found peering at him from between the branches of the hedge that grew along the lawn up to the sidewalk were... Eyes. Large, blue eyes. Four of them.

It was a little startling to say the least and Bubba blinked.

The eyes giggled again.

Getting to his feet, determined to get to the bottom of the giggling eyeballs, he walked over to the hedge and instead of going where the eyes were, he stepped around the hedge and was confronted by two laughing blonde kids.

They looked to be about the same age as he. They also looked the same. Both had blonde hair (though one's hair was admittedly longer), blue shirts and blue shorts on. They were the same height, same size and had the same round faces.

They ran at him and Bubba jerked in surprise, the one with long hair stood in front of him, the other had run around him, each was checking him out.

"W-What?" He asked, looking around. "What do you want?" The shorter haired kid jumped in front of him suddenly, standing beside the other. They both thrust out their hands.

"Fionna!"

"Finn!"

Without waiting for him to shake it, Fionna withdrew her hand and leaned forward, peering at him.

"Who are you?"

"Um... Bubba?"

"Okay Bubba! You know what you are?"

"Huh?"

"IT!" The girl Fionna, reached out and gave him a light push before dashing away laughing, the boy Finn darting after her.

"Hey! No fair!" He started to run after them when-

"Bubba!" His mother was on the edge of the lawn near him, he glanced at her, looking hopeful. "Stay out of trouble and be back for lunch." She ordered, shaking a mocking finger at him with a wink and a smile.

Bubba grinned at her and then ran after the twins, both letting out shrieks when they realized that the chase was on.

It was like the whole neighbourhood was their playground. People waved at them as they played around, eventually ending up at the twins house – just to show him where it was and how close it was to his. It was literally three houses down the road!

They'd seen the moving truck that morning and of course, had to go and investigate the invaders of their territory.

"It's a good thing you're not actually an invader." Finn had informed him.

Bubba had readily agreed. He was definitely not the invading sort. He hadn't even wanted to BE there. But now that he was... He quickly tagged Fionna and the three took off again, running back towards his house and moving van.

After a pause for lunch and a quick tour of his new house, the three kids once again ran off to play. Finn and Fionna showing Bubba all the good spots in the neighbourhood.

Everything was fun and games for the three children, until they came to Nightlund Lane.

Fionna and Finn dove behind some bushes near the street sign for the lane, pulling Bubba with them.

"Shhhh!"

"Huh?" Bubba blinked, looking confused.

Finn poked his head above the bushes, measurably to keep a look out for... Something.

"You see that house over there?" Fionna asked Bubba in a whisper, pointing to a home across the street and down a little bit.

"Y-Yeah?"

Finn dropped back down with them.

"That's Marshall's house." He said ominously (for a five year old).

Bubba swallowed. "Who's Marshall?"

"Marshall Lee." Fionna stated matter-of-factly, as though that cleared up any confusion.

"He's this super spooky kid."

"With _**red**_ eyes." Fionna added, pointing at her own eye ball for emphasis.

"R-Red?" Bubba gulped and looked towards the house with apprehension.

"What goes in that house..." Finn looked towards the house as well. "Never comes out."

The three children stared around the bush at the house for a moment, a small breeze giving them all shivers.

"They say, he's totally a vampire..."

"Yeah." Fionna nodded, agreeing with Finn, only to find Finn nodding and agreeing with her.

"Who feeds on random brats that stupidly hide in this bush."

Bubba, Finn and Fionna slowly turned around, eyes wide.

"Yeah, that's right." Marshall Lee leaned down close to their faces. "Brats just like you." He gave a wicked grin and without waiting to see what would happen next, Fionna and Finn seized their new friend Bubba and dragged him straight through the bush with them, shrieking in terror of the creepy looking seven year old who'd snuck up on them.

As he ran, Bubba couldn't help but look back over his shoulder to see if they were being chased. They weren't. The spooky looking kid – Marshall Lee, was still standing by the bush, watching them run away.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

"All summer... We staked out your house." Smiling, the pink haired man, tilted his head to the side. "And all summer, you played dirty tricks on us. Shot us with water guns, scared the life out of us. I think you nearly beat Finn up once when he got really close. I know you at least pushed him and he got skinned knees."

Bubba sighed, the smile falling from his face, eyes drifting down to the bruised hand held in his own. If only it were just skinned knees this time.

_Beep... Beep... Beep... _


	2. Chapter 2

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Sunlight danced across the walls of the little hospital room, the thin curtains casting shifting shadows on the furniture and equipment and throwing the cuts and bruises on the comatose patient wuthin into horrible, stark relief.

"There we go! All set!" The cheery nurse smiled, her Hello Kitty scrubs standing out in the otherwise pale colours and harsh metallics of the room. "I'll just take this one and he should be good for another couple hours." Her smile faltered slightly at the sad look she received and the tiny smile that tried to look happy. Tucking the empty IV bag under one arm, she reached out and gently set her other hand on Bubba Gumball's shoulder, giving it a brief, encouraging squeeze.

Bubba's tiny smile grew a little stronger and he closed his eyes, taking a slow breath.

"You should go for a walk Mr. Gumball. Clear the mind. Marshall... Marshall will still be here when you get back."

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Bubba lifted his gaze to the sleeping mans face, fingers tightening their grip on the cool, pale hand. The nurse was right. Marshall Lee would still be there when he got back; laying propped up slightly in the small, white hospital bed, in the little barren room with only the beeping of his own heart for company.

Carefully, he brushed his warm fingers across Marshall's cool cheek, making sure to not touch the plastic tube bringing a steady flow of oxygen into the mans nose.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

The rich smell of tea invaded Bubba's senses and brought him a quick feeling of peace. The paper cup was hot in his hand and slightly tarnished the delicious smell of the golden-brown liquid, but Bubba didn't mind; anything was better than the sterile smell of the rest of the hospital.

He nodded at the coffee shop employee behind the counter and then turned away, bringing the cup to his lips and taking a sip of the hot drink. He had taken the elevator down to main floor of the hospital where there were a few gift stands, a pharmacy and a handy little coffee shop.  
>His violet eyes swept over the patrons of the coffee shop; most were people that like he, were there visiting someone else, but there were a few who wore the white and red bands around their wrists, marking them as patients.<p>

He wondered how many weren't going home.

Carrying his tea almost reverently in his hands, Bubba slowly began the walk back to the elevators, looking around him and taking in the bustle of the main floor and lobby of the hospital. There was noise all around, almost making him cringe. It was too loud, too jarring. There were cash registers dinging, 'Now Serving Number...' signs beeping, people chattering to one another, while others yelled to be heard over the din.

Bubba sipped his tea and grimaced, feeling a headache beginning to pound behind his eyes from all the noise. Firmly, he jabbed the up button on the wall with his thumb and sighed, looking up towards the ceiling with guarded eyes. It was so noisy down here; so much loudness, so much life.

The eight floor was just as noisy, but in a different way. He liked the noise on the eighth floor and he didn't want it to go away; he didn't want it to quiet down and lord, he didn't want it to stop. Bubba bit his lip and shoved his free hand into his pants pocket, absently tapping his toe as he waited for the elevator. A thought fluttered into his mind and he felt his heart beat a little faster in his chest. Glob why wouldn't the elevator hurry up. He had to get back up to the eighth floor; he had to get away from all this terrible noise.

'If a tree fell in the woods and no one was around to hear it, did it really make a sound?'

If no one was around to listen to Marshall Lee's heart beep in the little room high above him, what if it stopped making noise? What if it just...

Bubba's thumb stabbed the up button again as a bead of sweat snaked down the side of his face. The paper cup was too hot in his hand. The heat was intense, but he didn't dare switch hands. If he switched hands, the elevator would somehow be even slower, it would take even longer for him to get upstairs and hear the beeps in the little room.

When at least the elevator dinged open, it took more self restraint than the man would care to admit to keep from flinging himself into it. He knew he was being irrational, but when one was worried, ones thoughts tended to spiral out of control, even when you were usually the most collected of individuals, sometimes things happened.

_Beep... Beep...Beep..._

Marshall wasn't alone in the little room when Bubba finally walked back in.

Fionna was there, as was his own sister, Bonni, busily arranging some flowers on the table next to the comatose man and Marceline was occupying the uncomfortable chair, her hand clutching Marshall's like it was a lifeline.

"Bubba!" Bonni smiled at him and hurried over, giving him a warm hug that lasted a little longer than usual and was a little tighter than normal. Grateful, he returned it.

Marshall Lee still looked as he had before Bubba had gone for his walk. Unnaturally still and quiet, completely unaware of his surroundings.

"Where did the flowers come from?" Bubba asked, walking around the bed and over to them, his hand brushing Marshall's body as he passed. "They're pretty."

"I thought maybe some colour in this room would help." Bonni answered, "It's so drab in here. You know?"

The room was definitely not Marshall's style. The walls were a pale robins egg blue, the curtains on the window a bland, beige colour and nearly everything else was either sterile white or steel grey. Marshall Lee was a pick up the paint can and throw colour at the walls and see what happened kind of guy, so he would've hated it and complained about it endlessly.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Bubba wished he would complain about the ugly robins egg colour. The gross looking curtains the sterile furniture.

"Bubba...?"

He wished Marshall would start complaining about his head hurting, about his broken arm, the cracked ribs, the shattered knee.

"Bubba!"

Warm arms encircled him and someone took the paper cup of tea from his shaking hand. He wished they were Marshall's arms. He wished it was Marshall's voice telling him things were going to be okay.

"I'm... I'm all right. Sorry." Gently he pushed his sister away and shrugged Fionna's hand off his shoulder. Drawing a deep breath, he looked towards the ceiling, swallowed and then back at the colourful flowers. "It's just I... I never did show him how to... How to tell the difference between the weeds and the flowers." Bubba looked over at Marshall, his gaze briefly meeting Marceline's. "And I-"

"You'll just have to show him when he wakes up." Fionna interrupted warmly, taking Bubba's hands in hers and smiling. "Me too for that matter. Cause hell if I know!"

Bubba returned her smile with a wobbly one of his own, and closed his eyes, taking a moment to compose himself. This was hard on all of them. Not just he.

_Beep... Beep... Beep... _

"Hey... Marshall..." This room was quiet again, evening shadows slowly beginning to crawl through the room and once more, Bubba Gumball was seated in the uncomfortable chair by Marshall Lee's bedside, holding his hand.

"Do you... Remember my first day of school?" He reached out and brushed his fingers gently through black hair. "You were so mean."

AAA

Morning sunlight beamed down over the playground, highlighting the light steam drifting off the grass and plants in the early September air. Children dashed about and squealed on the playground in behind the little school, while in front of it, other children huddled nervously near their parents, looking at the building with both excitement and hesitation.

"Now Bubba, you be good okay?" Bubba's mother crouched down in front of her son, running her fingers through his light red hair. "I'll be here to pick you up this afternoon!" She smiled, "Your father and I are looking forward to hearing about your very first day!"

"Mmhm..." The boy swallowed nervously, mustering up a wavery smile for his mother. He'd been so excited for school the past few days, but now that it was here. He glanced up at the building; it was a little scary.

"Don't be scared." His mother tapped him lightly on the nose. "It'll be fun! Fionna and Finn will be here too! Remember?"

"Y-yeah!" This time, Bubba nodded a little more enthusiastically. His mother was right, he wouldn't be totally alone! His friends would be there too.

Almost as if on cue, a loud squeal sounded near him and then Bubba found himself tackled and enveloped in the arms of the blonde twins.

"You beat us here!" One of them shouted shrilly into his ear, which one he couldn't be sure, because at that octave, they both sounded the same.

Deep laughter sounded from somewhere above them; the twins father stood there with a big grin on his face, one that he exchanged with Bubba's mother. Their children would be just fine.

All around them, more parents arrived with their kids for their first day of school and soon enough, the bell rang signalling the beginning of the day and that it was time for the parents to head home.

Bubba's teacher was a wonderful lady and he liked her right from the beginning, his classmates were also quite friendly, if a little exciteable and for the most part, his first day of school was a wonderful experience, up until lunch time.

The three of them had finished eating and had run outside to play and explore the school grounds, as had pretty much every other kid in the school.

Somehow, a soccer ball had managed to hit Finn and screaming like a maniac, he seized the ball ran towards the players and joined the game in dramatic fashion, leaving Fionna and Bubba laughing on the side.

"It's a good thing he's got such a hard head!" Fionna giggled, the image of the ball nailing her brother in the side of his head repeating itself in her mind.

Bubba agreed, privately glad it hadn't been him it hit because it looked like it really hurt.

They watched Finn run around with the other ball players for a little bit before wandering off to explore a little more on their own.

The two were dashing over to a patch of grass and bushes when quite suddenly, little Bubba Gumball had the air fly from his lungs in a whoosh, the world spun and he found himself laying on the ground stunned, eyes wide and staring at the sky.

There was a brief moment in which he was more shocked that anything, and then the sting on his stomach set in and his back and head started hurting. The boy felt his eyes begin to water with tears and sobs worm their way up his throat.

"Ah hah. Whoops."

The rubber dodge ball rolled by Bubba's head and was stopped by a black and red sneaker.

"My bad." Marshall Lee smirked and picked up the ball.

"You did that on purpose!" Fionna accused, kneeling beside her friend and pointing a finger at the other boy. Marshall just smiled nastily and tucked the ball under his arm.

"It's a dodge ball." His eyes flicked to the sniffling Bubba trying to sit up. "Don't cry about it stupid. You should've dodged." He snickered and turned leaving the two of them on the dirt.

"I don't like him!" Fionna declared, glaring at Marshall Lee's receding back. "He's such a meanie!" She stuck out her tongue.

Beside her, Bubba sniffed, large tears spilling over his eyes as he pushed himself up with one arm, his body hurting.

"I... I don't like him either." He sniffed, wiping at his eyes and nose.

"Let's go tell on him!" The blonde girl declared, getting to her feet and helping Bubba to his.

"Mm!"

When lunch time came to an end, Bubba, in line with his classmates was following their teacher through the halls and back to their class room. He glanced at the main office as they trooped past it and noted with an odd twinge of satisfaction in his gut, Marshall Lee sitting (looking a little bored) in a chair outside the Principal's room.

Hopefully he got into a lot of trouble.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._

Tracing the line of Marshall's jaw, Bubba gave a sad little smile, lifting the mans fingers to his lips and giving them a kiss.

"You did get into trouble..." He whispered into the dark room. "I just... Wish I'd known sooner." Bubba drew a breath, lightly dusting his finger tips down Marshall's cheek, over his lips, across his closed eyes and back into his black hair.

He remained that way for a moment, moving his hand slowly; rhythmically. Letting the strands of hair slide between his fingers and gently massaging the skin underneath. Slowly he traced around the slightly pointed curve of Marshall's ear and down his neck to the edge of the hospital gown and then back up, cupping his cheek with his hand. Lifting himself, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Marshall's forehead, closing his eyes.

"Please wake up..." He pleaded against the smooth skin. "Please..."

AAA

"Why does he always pick on me!?" Scowling as he sat on the edge of the bathroom sink, the six year old Bubba stuck out his lower lip in an angry pout as his Mother dabbed at the bleeding scrape on his elbow.

"Some boys... Are naughty like that Bubba." She explained with a sigh. "Some kids... Some kids don't know any better, or were taught any better by their parents." She pulled a bandaid from the box sitting on the sink edge next to her son.

It was mid October and she was pretty sure that not a single week of school had gone by where her son hadn't come home complaining about grade two student, Marshall Lee Abadeer. School also wasn't the first place she'd heard the mean boys name on her young sons lips. He and his friends had been pushed around by the boy all summer and now it would seem, his less than pleasant demeanour had followed Bubba, Finn and Fionna to school.

Of course she'd called the school more than once about Marshall's behaviour and had been told that the school knew there was a problem and were doing their best to deal with it. For now, Bubba should just ignore him.

According to Bubba, ignoring him was really hard. Especially when he seemed to appear out of nowhere, like some kind of evil ninja.

"But Bubba," She pressed the Ninja Turtles bandaid to the scraped elbow and then set her hands on her sons shoulders, bringing her face close to his. "Promise me something. Never let him hurt you in here." She set a finger on his chest, over his heart. "He may say and do mean things, but never let him in here. Remember how his words and actions make you feel and use that to make yourself better. Treat people better. Don't be a bully too. Okay?"

Large violet eyes stared back at her and she smiled, cupping his small face in her hands.

"Promise?"

"I promise Mommy."

"Good."

"...I still don't like him."

laughed and kissed his nose.

"You don't have to, baby. You don't have to."

That night, Bubba lay in bed, rubbing at the bandaid on his elbow. He was supposed to be sleeping, he did after all have school the next day, but he was wide awake for some reason. He lay there, looking at the purple glow in the dark stars hanging above his bed. He watched them for a moment, moving slightly in the little breeze drifting in through his partially open bedroom door.

Suddenly, his fathers voice drifted in to him from somewhere downstairs, he sounded angry.

Hugging his teddy bear to his chest, the boy crawled out of bed and crept over to his bedroom door and then to the top of the stairs, listening to his parents talk.

"I know honey. I went over there today after the school called me. I... There's something wrong in that house."

"Obviously. Their boy is shoving kids around everywhere and needs a good spanking by the sounds of things."

"Some things his mother said when she answered the door. I mean, I don't think she'd... Well..."

"Candii, you're not making any sense."

"I know...I just... I don't want Bubba associating with that boy. Fionna and Finn either. I'm going to talk to the Martins about it tomorrow."

Crouching at the top of stairs, Bubba hugged his teddy bear tightly, resting his scraped chin on top of it. Not understanding what he was hearing, but wondering why his Mom sounded so upset.

When lunch time rolled around the following day at school, it was with more than a little caution that Bubba crept outside, Fionna and Finn bounding past him. Finn was going to play more soccer (he usually did that at lunch break), while Bubba and Fionna played together.

"Come on Bubba!" She yelled, turning to look at him still standing in the doorway, clutching the door frame and looking nervous. She ran over to him. "Are you worried about Marshall Lee?" She asked, reaching out to take Bubba's hand. "We didn't see him at recess, right?" She grinned. "Maybe he's not here today! And besides!" She made a muscle. "I started karate last night! Remember? I can beat him up now!"

Bubba laughed and allowed himself to be lead outside, violet eyes quickly looking for their usual bully. It wasn't just him Marshall picked on, though he did seem to get the worst of it for some reason. He picked on Finn and Fionna too, and other kids and just, generally anyone he seemed to deem stupid. He'd heard from others on the playground that he was rude to teachers and really only seemed to just scrape by with grades. In short, he was one of those people that Bubba's father referred to as 'No good.'

He purposely threw balls at people, shoved anyone out of his way, had gotten into a fight with at least two others since the start of school and was just generally an unkind person.

Bubba didn't like him in the least. Neither did Fionna. She'd once called him something that made Bubba's hands fly up to his face and a teacher threaten to wash her mouth out with soap. As it was, she'd gotten sent home with a note that needed to be signed by her parents and when Bubba had later asked her where she'd heard the word and what it meant, Fionna had said she'd heard a man use it while out shopping with her Mom once, it sounded like it would apply to Marshall Lee, even though she had no idea what it meant.

Apparently it was bad, because she'd gotten a stern talking to from her parents that night about using words like that.

Weirdly, it hadn't really seemed to bother Marshall, for as bad as the word seemed to be, he seemed completely immune to it. They'd decided that Marshall didn't know what it meant either. But, after that, he seemed to stop picking her so much, aside from occasionally making a weird face at her, he stopped going after her with dodge balls and pushing.

Bubba wished Marshall would leave him alone too.

But, it seemed he was lucky that day! Like he had been at recess, Marshall Lee was completely absent from the playground. Bubba hoped he'd gotten into trouble for pushing him to the ground the day before, cause it had really hurt; scraped his elbow and chin and it had gotten his clothes dirty.

Once the coast was confirmed to be clear, he and Fionna began playing a good, fast, fun game of tag, their game taking them all over the place. Sadly, the girl was much faster than he was, which meant he was usually 'It' for most of the lunch hour. But he didn't mind, it was fun trying to catch her and he swore that one day he'd be faster than her.

But today was not that day.

Panting, as she zoomed on ahead of him, Bubba set a hand against the school wall, bending over slightly as he tried to catch his breath. He was beside a classroom window and out of habit he glanced at it and then turned to look again.

It was the second grade class room and Marshall Lee was sitting in a desk at the front of the class, his head down. The teacher was sitting at her own desk, marking papers and munching on an apple.

Bubba smirked, obviously, Marshall had gotten detention. Served him right. He wished the mean boy would look up and see him outside right then while he was stuck inside with nothing to do but sit there.

But Marshall Lee didn't look up. He just continued to look like he was taking a nap at his desk. Bubba watched him for a few seconds longer and then dashed off after Fionna, making a fresh run at catching her.

_Beep... Beep... Beep..._


End file.
